It's Thanksgiving tomorrow! Happy Thanksgiving to all of you! I appreciate all the comments I've had the pleasure of receiving so far. It makes me want to suck it up and really start to plug away more at getting more useful information up here for my readers.
The last couple of weeks have seen me cut back on the anti-nausea medication. I worked my way down to just 1 first thing in the morning for a while and then, in just the past 3 days or so I've completely cut it out. It's a little tough because without it I do still get sudden urges to be sick, but I found that a couple of things really help me. First, I always need to have something in my stomach. The minute I start feeling hungry I also feel really nauseated. The other help is to just sit and relax after I've eaten or done anything physically demanding (which can be unloading the dishwasher for me these days :o/~ ) . Sprite has been helpful too. I honestly think it's just because it doesn't irritate my stomach like ginger ale or 7UP and it helps me burp up some of the gas that I suspect is causing some of the discomfort.
Physical complaints right now still consist of digestive discomfort, lots of gas, difficulty sleeping, breast issues, and fatigue. The list of OTC medications approved by my Dr. that I received at my first prenatal visit included: Tums, Gaviscon, Pepcid, and Zantac for indigestion/heartburn. Gaviscon works good for me, but they kind of fizz up while you chew them and the taste isn't great so they aren't very appealing. I stopped taking them when my nausea got really bad. Tums have started to taste more like candy to me. I've found that taking 2 before I go to bed really helps my bubbly stomach and discomfort. I'm just starting regular Pepcid today in hopes that it will help. The difficulty sleeping is partly due to yucky stomach and partly due to the fact that when I do sleep I often have crazy dreams that leave me feeling like I didn't rest at all. I am in dire need of new bras. I have vastly outgrown my old ones, even my sports bras. I'm also having a lot of breast tenderness as they go through their little (or not so little!) growth spurt. Thank goodness my fatigue is slowly decreasing. I do still feel totally wiped out after little errands or chores, but it's not as bad as it used to be and after a little down time I feel better.
I have noticed two main emotional changes in myself. The first change has actually mostly passed. Around the beginning of week 9 I suddenly got this intense fear in me concerning my pregnancy. These sudden realization occured to me: I am pregnant-like actually growing a living human being inside of me, My life will never ever be the same again, and this baby is going to continue to grow and I'm going to have to find a way to get it out. These thoughts had often occured to me before I got pregnant, after I found out we were pregnant and were often repeated with great solemnity by my husband before we started trying. But for some reason, it all became very real and scary to me. I started to worry and even lament a little. I think what put an end to all this though was the day I picked up my 8 week ultrasound picture and, instead of seeing a little grain of rice in a sac, I was able to make out a little head, torso and even faint little legs. I wondered why I had never seen it before. It made such a difference in my perspective. It was like all of a sudden the thing taking over my body and causing all these changes was more human to me. Less like something I was suffering for and more like a baby I was nourishing. The second change in me I guess is more spiritual than emotional. More and more I've felt a strong desire to nourish myself spiritually. Lets just say my husband and I aren't the best at making it to church meetings. Recently, however, I've found myself spending more time at my prayers and scripture study. It's really helped me deal with my worries and even my physical symptoms. I think these desires stem from the realization that in a matter of months I will be a mommy; responsible for the physical, emotional, and spiritual well-being of a little human. So, I want to be as prepared for that as I can be.
~Jessy
Wednesday, November 21, 2007
Monday, November 5, 2007
Prenatal Appointment 1
Yay! My first prenatal appointment finally arrived. I realize that how this appointment goes varies from Dr's office to Dr's office, but my experience was a pleasant and rewarding one.
What Happened:
1. I filled out a worksheet addressing family history. (any genetic abnormalities in either my or my husband's families etc.)
2. I was taken back, weighed, and asked to provide a urine sample (I drank so much water this morning, but when it came time to pee...I couldn't!).
3. The nurse asked me what symptoms I had been having and told me I wouldn't have a PAP today because mine was current. She handed me an order for labs and a prescription for refills on my prenatals. Then she told me to undress from the waist down and gave me a sheet to cover myself with.
4. The nurse practitioner came in and collected "cultures" which feels just like a pap (speculum, swabs...that whole deal. Ouchy.). She felt to see how big my uterus is (this involved one hand inside and one hand pressing down on my abdomen but didn't hurt or feel uncomfortable at all). She said it was small.
5. Then, she took me back to an ultrasound room and did an abdominal ultrasound "just for fun." She said we probably wouldn't see anything because it was so early on, but said this was perfectly normal and nothing to worry about. We found it! It looked like a tiny grain of rice in a little sac. She printed a picture out for me and said my next ultrasound would be the "fun" one. :o)
6. When we got back to the examining room she gave me this goodie bag and some samples of my prenatals. Then, she answered any questions I had.
7. I tried to pee again and still couldn't. So, I drank a few glasses of water there and headed over to the little room that served as a lab in the office. So convenient! The lab tech was SO NICE. I barely felt the needle and chatted with her through 6 tubes of blood.
8. I sat around in the waiting room with my husband until I finally got the urge! :o)~ The results weren't too impressive, but the lab tech said it was enough so I was happy.
9. I made my next appointments. The nurse practitioner had me schedule an ultrasound just before my 12 week appointment to check for down syndrome. The scheduler also scheduled my next 3 appointments and told me they would be with my Dr.
Of course on the way home from the appointment I was doing the pee pee dance majorly. Figures. Overall, everyone I dealt with was SO nice and helpful. The goodie bag had little informative pamphlets and magazines along with some coupons for baby stuff. There was also a list in there of all the safe OTC meds I could take. Nice.
My favorite part, of course, was getting to see my little grain of rice. :o)))
-Jessy
What Happened:
1. I filled out a worksheet addressing family history. (any genetic abnormalities in either my or my husband's families etc.)
2. I was taken back, weighed, and asked to provide a urine sample (I drank so much water this morning, but when it came time to pee...I couldn't!).
3. The nurse asked me what symptoms I had been having and told me I wouldn't have a PAP today because mine was current. She handed me an order for labs and a prescription for refills on my prenatals. Then she told me to undress from the waist down and gave me a sheet to cover myself with.
4. The nurse practitioner came in and collected "cultures" which feels just like a pap (speculum, swabs...that whole deal. Ouchy.). She felt to see how big my uterus is (this involved one hand inside and one hand pressing down on my abdomen but didn't hurt or feel uncomfortable at all). She said it was small.
5. Then, she took me back to an ultrasound room and did an abdominal ultrasound "just for fun." She said we probably wouldn't see anything because it was so early on, but said this was perfectly normal and nothing to worry about. We found it! It looked like a tiny grain of rice in a little sac. She printed a picture out for me and said my next ultrasound would be the "fun" one. :o)
6. When we got back to the examining room she gave me this goodie bag and some samples of my prenatals. Then, she answered any questions I had.
7. I tried to pee again and still couldn't. So, I drank a few glasses of water there and headed over to the little room that served as a lab in the office. So convenient! The lab tech was SO NICE. I barely felt the needle and chatted with her through 6 tubes of blood.
8. I sat around in the waiting room with my husband until I finally got the urge! :o)~ The results weren't too impressive, but the lab tech said it was enough so I was happy.
9. I made my next appointments. The nurse practitioner had me schedule an ultrasound just before my 12 week appointment to check for down syndrome. The scheduler also scheduled my next 3 appointments and told me they would be with my Dr.
Of course on the way home from the appointment I was doing the pee pee dance majorly. Figures. Overall, everyone I dealt with was SO nice and helpful. The goodie bag had little informative pamphlets and magazines along with some coupons for baby stuff. There was also a list in there of all the safe OTC meds I could take. Nice.
My favorite part, of course, was getting to see my little grain of rice. :o)))
-Jessy
Weeks 7 & 8
I'm finally starting to feel a bit better. The nausea got so bad that I was unable to keep much of anything down. So, I called my Dr. and he prescribed Phenergan for me. Unfortunately, the Phenergan just made me feel a lot worse and then knocked me out for 5 or so hours. If food and water weren't necessities, this would be a great situation; I could just sleep away the days. No dice though, so I called the Dr. again and they switched me to Zofran. A lot of the message boards I'd checked out were full of praises for Zofran, so I was really glad when it started working for me. I went from barely being able to stand in a cool shower (probably because of the lack of nutrients and hydration) to being able to run short errands and get back to chores around the house in about a week. I still have to take it easy and keep my meals small, but I can actually eat and drink decent amounts throught the day. I got some great advice on how to increase my water intake last night: orange crystal light. It has lots of vitamin C and tastes like Tang. :o)~ That and the cherry-limeade flavor are my favs right now.
Week 8 ends tomorrow, but today was my first prenatal appointment. I have a seperate post about that though.
Pregnancy is definately a humbling experience for me so far. It's amazing how different the experience is for each one of us. Some people I talked to didn't even have morning sickness. Some felt nauseas, but were able to control it with dietary changes and get on with their everyday lives. I was hit extremely hard and found myself really scared at times. It's terrifying to have very little control over the body you thought you knew so well. I know resorting to medication was the best option for me and my pregnancy. It stings a bit though to feel like I had to go that route when so many others can just tough it out. It reminds me a little of a labor experience story that was shared with me. I know someone who started having painful contractions really early on and had to deal with them regularly throught her pregnancy. Then, closer to her due date, when she thought she was starting actual labor she wasn't sure if she should go to the hospital just yet because she didn't want to seem like a "wimp." It sucks that so many of us feel like "wimps" because we chose to get an epidural or chose not to (or simply can't) breastfeed. Even things like emergency C-sections and miscarriages seem to bring on feelings of failure in some way. I guess that's one reason why it's important to me to try to share my experiences honestly. Maybe someone will be able to relate well to my blog and feel less "wimpy" and more normal.
-Jessy
Week 8 ends tomorrow, but today was my first prenatal appointment. I have a seperate post about that though.
Pregnancy is definately a humbling experience for me so far. It's amazing how different the experience is for each one of us. Some people I talked to didn't even have morning sickness. Some felt nauseas, but were able to control it with dietary changes and get on with their everyday lives. I was hit extremely hard and found myself really scared at times. It's terrifying to have very little control over the body you thought you knew so well. I know resorting to medication was the best option for me and my pregnancy. It stings a bit though to feel like I had to go that route when so many others can just tough it out. It reminds me a little of a labor experience story that was shared with me. I know someone who started having painful contractions really early on and had to deal with them regularly throught her pregnancy. Then, closer to her due date, when she thought she was starting actual labor she wasn't sure if she should go to the hospital just yet because she didn't want to seem like a "wimp." It sucks that so many of us feel like "wimps" because we chose to get an epidural or chose not to (or simply can't) breastfeed. Even things like emergency C-sections and miscarriages seem to bring on feelings of failure in some way. I guess that's one reason why it's important to me to try to share my experiences honestly. Maybe someone will be able to relate well to my blog and feel less "wimpy" and more normal.
-Jessy
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